Meyer taking it one game at a time as winning streak reaches 18 games

Winning streaks have to weigh on a coach and a team. Urban Meyer has won his first 18 games, and seems to have gotten past his three biggest challenges in the first half of the season. Ohio State had to fly across the country to play Cal and then arrived back in Columbus in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Minutes ticked closer to midnight. Urban Meyer emerged from the Ohio State locker room late last Saturday night and headed to an interview room. He looked exhausted. He looked relieved.

Just outside the locker room, which was a stone’s throw from where Ohio State’s team buses lined up for the team to board, a small group of Buckeye fans waited for the king Buckeye to walk out. They were well informed fans, waiting for Meyer to walk to his press interview area because, unlike most fans, they knew the drill.

Meyer, poker faced when a team public relations administrator opened the door for him, smiled as the fans cheered wildly. A lady made her way through distracted security and Meyer, who minutes earlier pulled out a win against Northwestern that probably felt like delivering a baby for him, slapped on a quick smile.

In the press conference after the Northwestern game, Meyer still looked exasperated. This was win No. 18 ... in a row.

He doesn’t talk about the streak.

“I learned a long time ago, (today) is (today), let’s just have a good tomorrow,” Meyer said. “Football is so fluid as far as injuries and stuff. Just look around at ESPN.com, it’s all over the place. I don’t think about game six or seven, or whatever we’re on.”

Winning streaks have to weigh on a coach and a team. Meyer has won his first 18 games, and seems to have gotten past his three biggest challenges in the first half of the season. Ohio State had to fly across the country to play Cal and then arrived back in Columbus in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

A week later, the Buckeyes played overmatched FCS Florida A&M, but it was a long week for players and coaches.

Then OSU had to play consecutive prime-time games, the first at home against Wisconsin. Coaches got about three hours of sleep after that game before waking up Sunday morning to begin plans to play Northwestern, another top 25 team in prime time, and this one on the road.

Meyer had Saturday off, sort of. His players have been off since Friday and return to practice Monday.

As much as players have to get fresh legs, coaches need fresh minds.

“We do,” Meyer said. “We’ve had some injuries. (Christian Bryant) is still not settled yet.”

Meyer laments losing his most emotional leader, Bryant, a senior who is lost for the season with a broken ankle on the one of the final plays of the Wisconsin game.

“That was a stinger,” Meyer said. “That takes a toll on people. I feel like (the bye week) came at the right time.”

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Meyer’s health history is well documented. Most major college football coaches are workaholics by necessity. Every stone, every week, gets turned back over. A game plan is devised. Hours upon hours are spent combing through video of the opposing team to find the weak link that matches up against your team’s strength.

Meyer wore himself out at Florida. He took a year off from coaching. Before he accepted the Ohio State coaching job, he signed a contract with his family. It was written by his oldest daughter, Nicki, a former volleyball player at Georgia Tech.

He signed that contract before he signed the one that pays him $4.4 million a year through 2017. The contract with his family may be more valuable. It states:

My family will always come first; I will take care of myself and maintain good health; I will go on a trip once a year with Nicki — MINIMUM; I will not go more than nine hours a day at the office; I will sleep with my cellphone on silent; I will continue to communicate with my kids daily; I will trust God’s plan and not be overanxious; I will keep the lake house; I will find a way to watch Nicki and Gigi play volleyball; I will eat three meals a day.

The contract was never intended for dad to obey all the stipulations all the time. For example, they know nine hours a day at the office during the season isn’t a reality.

Nicki Meyer has since graduated from Georgia Tech. However, Gigi Meyer plays for Florida Gulf Coast. Meyer arranged his recruiting responsibilities this weekend around his daughter’s volleyball schedule. He never would have taken the time to see one of his kids play volleyball while coaching at Florida.

FGCU played Friday in South Carolina and Saturday in Tennessee.

“I’m gonna see my daughter play volleyball,” Meyer said, smiling, when asked this week where he would be recruiting, which he can’t reveal because it would be a minor NCAA violation.

This morning, Meyer returns his full attention to preparing the Buckeyes to play Iowa. He will try to win No. 19. Terry Bowden won 20 in a row when he took over Auburn’s program two decades ago. Larry Coker won 24 straight at Miami, before, ironically, Ohio State snapped the streak in the 2002 national championship game. Legendary Pop Warner set the record by winning his first 33 at Pittsburgh.

Meyer won 22 in a row at Florida. But he’s never started a job 22-0 before.

“I didn’t know that,” wide receiver Corey Brown said. “I think everybody is focused on one game at a time. Coach Meyer puts a lot of emphasis on taking it one game at a time.”

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The winning and the preparing, the long hours and work wear on a coach.

The bye week for the Buckeyes probably couldn’t not have come at a better time.

“Coaches have batteries, too,” offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tom Herman asked rhetorically. “We get worn down and tired and cranky. Our focus wanes at times. It is much needed. ... It couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Meyer encouraged his players, and his coaches, to spend time with their families this weekend. Try to be normal. Players needs to rest their bodies and eat right.

Monday morning weigh-ins are prompt. It’s a bye week, not a party week.

“Some (players) see a bye week and go act like a jerk,” Meyer said. “That’s not what bye weeks are for. Football is a tough, violent, contact sport. Your joints and shoulders need a break. That’s what it’s for. To come back eight pounds under, or eight pounds over and not watching football would be a disgrace. I have a real problem with that. There’s a weigh-in Monday morning, and they better be on the dot.”

The coach wasn’t kidding. He did, however, smile more during a seven-minute interview this week than he did in the previous six weeks. His batteries will be recharged. He’ll see his family.

Then the grind is back on. The expectations will build. Meyer will have to manage a team — and himself — through it all.